Egypt braced for rival protests

An Egyptian army armoured personnel carrier in the Mahdi neighborhood of Cairo. Opponents of Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi are pressing ahead with plans to stage mass rallies against the Islamist leader after he marked his turbulent first year in office with a defiant speech. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

Whatever the outcome of the confrontation on June 30, Egypt's deep structural problems will remain. But the society will be addressing them with weakened and tarnished institutions, a political process incapable of producing clear policies, embittered losers and mistrustful winners, and no accepted procedures for resolving political differences. These problems may slowly resolve themselves over time, but Egyptian politics shows few signs of patience.

There was no blood around the spot as there would have been if someone had blown themselves up. It looked as if the mortar had been randomly fired into the Christian quarter by rebels who assume Christians, frightened of Islamic fundamentalism, are pro-government.